This invention relates generally to the field of garment hangers, and more particularly but not exclusively, to hangers for hanging narrow-necked garments.
Garment hangers, also known as clothes hangers, coat hangers, or simply hangers, have been known in the art at least since U.S. Pat. No. 0,071,136 was awarded to Henry M. Clemence in November 1867. Garment hangers today are commonly constructed of plastic, metal wire, wood, or a combination of these materials, and are commercially available today for garments of differing types and sizes. Hangers for top-wear, including shirts, vests, sweaters, jackets, coats, and most blouses and dresses, conventionally support these garments with a pair of sloping spars or a single bilateral decurved spar, mimicking the human shoulders that support the garments during normal upright wearing. To conserve space in storage, these spars are generally much narrower than human shoulders. In length, properly sized, the spars extend from the inside of the garment's collar all the way to the ends of the garment's yoke, in order to avoid the unsightly puckers and wrinkles that develop in the garment around the outer ends of too-long or too-short spars when the garment is left hanging for an extended time or left to dry on the hanger.
If a garment's neck opening is narrower than the length of either of the garment's shoulders, as is usually the case, then the frame of a properly sized hanger will not fit through the garment's neck opening without stretching or tearing the garment's collar or, if the top of the garment is buttoned, ripping off the top few buttons. Thus when inserting or removing the hanger, the entire hanger must be manipulated through the bottom of the garment—a cumbersome and time-consuming process that risks damaging the garment fabric with the hanger's suspensor hook. Alternatively, if the garment is closed with buttons, a zipper, or other fasteners, one can partially or completely unfasten the garment beforehand, pass the spars of the hanger through the now widened neck opening, and fasten it again afterwards—a time-consuming process made more awkward by the absence of a human torso to hold the garment in place. Both of these solutions subject the garment to unnecessary handling and wear.
A great number of garment hanger inventions have been proposed in an attempt to surmount this problem, most of them by disassembling or collapsing the hanger into a contracted configuration to facilitate inserting or removing the hanger directly through the garment neck opening, and reassembling or expanding it inside the garment into an extended configuration to support the garment for hanging. This change in configuration is typically effected by detaching and reattaching parts of the hanger, rotating parts of the hanger relative to one another, sliding parts of the hanger relative to one another, or some combination of these three techniques. Many other top-wear garment hangers, though not expressly intended to address this problem, use the same or similar means to surmount the closely related problems of making the hanger more compact when not in use or when travelling, and of making the hanger adaptable to different sizes of garments.
Separable-Frame Hangers
A common method of making a top-wear garment hanger more compact is to divide the frame lengthwise into detachable segments. In principle, detaching segments of the frame makes it possible to insert or remove the hanger through a narrow neck piecemeal without stretching, tearing, or undoing the garment, although most such inventions were not invented with this purpose in mind. However, attempting to piece such a frame back together inside an article of clothing, either while trying at the same time to hold the article in position or within the confines of a clothing rack, is a nontrivial task. A further disadvantage of essentially all separable-frame hangers is that one or more parts can be inadvertently dropped in the process detaching or reattaching them, a particularly inconvenient mishap if the part falls into the garment and lodges in a sleeve, an interior pocket, or a fold, and has to be fished out. Detachable parts are moreover easily misplaced and lost. In a single exception, described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,613,858, awarded to Robert M. Sprague in October 1952, the parts cannot be dropped or lost, because they are permanently sewn into the garment—no doubt at the cost of significant discomfort.
Most of the separable-frame hanger designs provide detachable spar extensions, some in the form of shaped shoulder pads, which attach to the main top rail or pair of spars supporting the shoulders of narrow-necked clothing. These include U.S. Pat. No. 0,765,331, awarded in July 1904 to John Thomas Batts, as well as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,890,271, 1,108,848, 1,817,369, 2,155,071, 2,160,128, 2,160,129, 2,160,173, 2,160,188, 2,335,285, 2,409,708, 2,518,367, 2,524,978, 2,525,142, 2,527,312, 2,528,016, 2,562,368, 2,538,971, 2,574,963, 2,591,387, 2,613,858, 2,619,269, 2,620,102, 2,640,632, 2,652,958, 2,666,561, 2,701,083, 2,754,039, 2,814,426, 2,817,471, 2,884,171, 3,039,662, 4,895,283, 5,476,199, 5,613,627, 5,680,972, 5,718,358, 5,727,718, 5,941,429, 5,950,882, 6,062,445, 6,068,166, 6,158,634, 6,164,504, 6,206,255, 6,637,630, 6,688,503, 6,758,378, 6,811,064, and 7,077,300. Reattaching spar extensions after inserting the pieces through a narrow neck entails reaching inside the garment with one or both hands to fumble blindly under the garment's shoulders. In some such inventions, including U.S. Pat. No. 2,421,433, awarded in June 1947 to Herbert M. Poole, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,446,312, 2,500,817, 2,504,562, 2,510,375, 2,637,471, 2,709,026, 2,718,340, 2,722,351, 5,085,357, 5,579,964, 5,598,957, 6,179,174, and 6,722,538, the spar extensions are additionally joined to a bottom rail, further complicating the reassembly and requiring the user to reach even further into the garment. Similarly, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,155,071 (e.g., FIG. 7), awarded in April 1939 to Leonard A. Young, as well as in U.S. Pat. No. 2,160,128 (e.g., FIG. 2,3), the spars curve and join each other to form a bottom rail.
In several inventions, both spars are completely removable, as in U.S. Pat. No. 0,401,943, assigned in April 1889 to William Gowen, as well as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,779,062, 1,550,634, 2,354,099, 2,519,276, 2,562,368, 2,548,810, 2,774,526, 2,777,619, 3,587,949, 5,074,446 (e.g., FIG. 5), 5,727,718 (e.g., FIG. 12), and 6,050,460. In a few inventions, only one spar is completely removable, as in U.S. Pat. No. 2,613,858, awarded in October 1952 to Robert M. Sprague, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,808,187 and 7,246,729. Being able to completely remove one or both spars makes it possible to reassemble the coat hanger without reaching blindly inside the garment. On the other hand, it means that each spar has to support the entire weight of the respective shoulder of the garment, making assembly more awkward for heavy garments.
Folding-Frame Hangers
One of the most common methods of collapsing and expanding a garment hanger is by folding the frame at pivoting joints within the range of the garment's neck opening, thus dividing the top rail of the hanger into two spars hinged, at their proximal ends, either to each other or to a connecting bridge. All such inventions share some major drawbacks. There is a risk of personal injury from pinching or shearing one's skin or worse in the folding mechanism, often under considerable leverage, as the hanger is collapsed, particularly under a heavy garment. Similarly, there is the risk of pinching and damaging or even shearing the fabric of the garment in the folding mechanism. The hinges themselves are focal points of friction and stress under great leverage, and tend to wear quickly, squeak, bind, wiggle, and break. Moreover, the use of hinges (9 of them in the garment hanger described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,834,598; 12 in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,955,995, 4,221,310, and 4,223,817; 37 in U.S. Pat. No. 2,507,906) increases the complexity of the construction and hence the cost of manufacturing and the frequency of malfunction in operation.
In a large number of folding-frame garment hanger inventions, including U.S. Pat. No. 0,678,073, awarded to Frederick M. Osgood in July 1901, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,765,331, 0,778,007, 0,900,567, 0,904,249, 0,923,786, 0,932,756, 0,932,756, 0,958,366, 0,959,687, 1,040,942, 1,066,170, 1,184,288, 1,268,881, 1,495,425, 1,676,936, 1,769,076, 1,970,943, 2,166,492, 2,435,301, 2,436,314, 2,439,838, 2,440,636, 2,440,637, 2,518,367, 2,569,726, 2,577,854, 2,586,913, 2,595,026, 2,605,942, 2,629,525, 2,653,739, 2,656,078, 2,682,980, 2,699,276, 2,716,513, 2,716,514, 2,719,658, 2,723,065, 2,728,499, 2,745,579, 2,777,621, 2,782,969, 2,817,471, 2,872,090, 2,906,442, 2,926,823, 2,941,704, 3,082,921, 3,151,788, 3,315,854, 3,531,028, 3,705,673, 3,719,312, 3,802,610, 3,858,770, 4,114,786, 4,117,960, 4,186,857, 4,231,499, 4,524,890, 4,673,116, 4,730,757, 4,948,019, 4,988,021, 5,383,584, 5,397,037, 5,590,823, 5,690,257, 5,950,882, 5,979,721, 6,050,460, 6,427,882, 7,021,507, 7,036,696, 7,237,702, 7,243,823, and 7,249,699, the spars fold downward, away from the suspensor, remaining in the same plane with the suspensor shaft. Since the bulk of the weight of the garment bears downward on the outer ends of the spars, hangers with downward-folding spars always require a latching means to prevent the spars from collapsing during use, although a few, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,589,901, 2,137,700, 6,540,121, neglect this necessity. This latch constitutes an inherent structural weakness making such hangers unsuitable for heavy garments, and introduces additional moving parts prone to malfunction and failure. Some inventions, including U.S. Pat. No. 0,920,240, awarded to Isak Anderson in May 1909, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,101,088, 1,216,447, 1,258,452, 1,278,054, 1,351,516, 1,370,713, 1,444,525, 1,682,626, 2,108,622, 2,413,221, 2,418,870, 2,544,170, 2,605,942, 2,906,442, 3,040,941, 4,673,115, 4,813,581, and 5,893,493, provide for heavy garments by bracing the spars open with a folding crossbar downwardly hinged at its center and attached via pivots near the distal ends of the spars, which thus extends nearly the full span of the expanded hanger. The crossbar is locked in the extended position by gravitational action on the crossbar itself, and prevented from overextending by catches on or near the hinge. However, in order to unlatch the crossbar to remove the hanger from the garment, one must inconveniently reach in blindly through the neck opening to pull upward at the crossbar hinge, increasing the risk of pinching or shearing oneself in the collapsing mechanism. In a few inventions, such as 1,286,022, awarded to Walter J. Klesat in November 1928, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,425,475 and 7,172,102 (e.g., FIG. 1), the crossbar hinge folds upwards instead of downwards when collapsed, and the spars are locked in the expanded configuration by pulling the crossbar hinge upward beyond the level point against a stop affixed beneath the crown of the hanger frame, such that the crossbar hinge is pushed upward against the stop by the weight of garment on the spars. A few inventions join the halves of the crossbar with, instead of hinge, a sliding sleeve, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,678,073, 1,458,113, 1,458,114, 2,232,249, and 4,227,632 (e.g., FIG. 5, 6), or a stud, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,044,534, and 6,021,932 (e.g., FIG. 12), making it even more inconvenient to disengage inside a garment, and further necessitating reaching inside the garment with one's hands to fish for the crossbar ends and engage the latch. And a few, such as U.S. Pat. No. 2,582,669, even use a turnbuckle instead of a sliding sleeve, making the process especially tedious. This problem in turn has been solved by a few inventions, including U.S. Pat. No. 1,111,147, awarded to Oscar Fogde in 1914, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,589,901, 1,886,869, 2,290,722, 2,754,038, and 2,881,965, which connect the shaft of the suspensor to the crossbar hinge, so that the latch can be operated by grasping the top of the frame and pushing the suspensor and thus the upwardly folding crossbar hinge downward to collapse the hanger, or pulling the suspensor and thus the crossbar hinge upward to unfold the spars. In a few of these, including U.S. Pat. No. 2,290,722, awarded to Murray Weingarten in July 1942, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,509,754 and 4,227,632, the spars are locked in the expanded configuration by pulling the crossbar hinge upward beyond the level point against a stop beneath the crown of the hanger frame, where the crossbar hinge is pushed upward against the stop by the weight of garment on the spars even as the crossbar hinge is pulled upward against the stop by the weight of the laden hanger on the suspensor, thus maintaining the crossbar hinge in the locked position by gravitational action. Unfortunately, this solution comes at the cost of additional complexity, with a sliding joint for the suspensor shaft through the frame crown added to a total of at least four hinged joints at the ends of the spars and crossbar segments. The downward-folding garment hanger in U.S. Pat. No. 3,858,770 also raises the spars by pulling upward on the suspensor, but without a crossbar and thus with only two hinged joints and a sliding joint, so the joint is weak and cannot support heavy garments.
In nearly as large a number of folding-frame garment hanger inventions, including U.S. Pat. No. 0,320,230, awarded in June 1885 to George H. Donaldson, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,395,884, 0,586,456, 0,589,901, 0,611,669, 0,624,415, 0,672,777, 0,713,376, 0,725,082, 0,834,946, 0,838,839, 0,847,212, 0,886,041, 0,890,023, 0,896,570, 0,900,567, 0,912,047, 0,919,501, 0,964,003, 0,964,072, 0,976,531, 0,990,515, 1,049,867, 1,097,889, 1,102,420, 1,193,357, 1,336,375, 1,336,429, 1,344,665, 1,545,765, 1,570,196, 1,673,059, 1,743,234, 1,809,561, 1,955,995 1,979,687, 2,170,479, 2,409,269, 2,448,234, 2,500,729, 2,540,508, 2,558,583, 2,576,761, 2,633,276, 2,663,470, 2,712,890, 2,724,533, 2,805,011, 3,219,241, 3,254,814, 3,334,793, 3,401,855, 3,441,183, 3,834,598, 3,874,572, 4,221,310, 4,223,817, 4,717,053, 4,915,271, 5,810,216, 5,813,578, the spars fold upward, toward the suspensor, remaining in the same plane with the suspensor shaft. Garment hangers with upward-folding spars, unlike those with downward-folding spars, do not require a latch to keep them from collapsing in use, because the weight of the garment holds them open. Nevertheless, the stop that prevents them from opening too far and collapsing downwardly is still a structural weak point prone to failure. A few inventions, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,855,295, 1,696,480, and 3,214,071, overcome this weakness by bracing the spars open from below with a removable crossbar attached via pins or hooks near the distal ends of the spars once the hanger is unfolded. However, in order to latch or unlatch the crossbar, one must inconveniently reach in through the neck opening of the garment and fumble blindly around to mate the ends of the crossbar with the ends of the spars. The invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,493, in which the crossbar is permanently attached to the ends of the spars via pivots, and folds upward alongside the spars in the collapsed configuration, is less inconvenient, in that it only requires that one blindly locate a sleeve mounted on the crossbar and slide it into position to lock the crossbar joints. A major inconvenience shared by all hangers with upward-folding spars is that, if the hanger is to pass through the neck opening of the garment, then the spars of the hanger must be unfolded and folded by reaching inside the garment with one's hands. In fact, since the spars fold upward toward the suspensor hook, the entire hanger, hook and all, must be thrust down inside the garment prior to unfolding or folding the spars.
In a smaller set of folding-frame garment hangers, including U.S. Pat. No. 0,920,894, awarded in May 1909 to 0,920,894, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,446,312, 3,430,827, 3,703,978, 4,669,642, 5,085,357 (e.g., FIG. 4), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,098, the spars fold laterally, perpendicularly or askew to the axis of the suspensor, and out of the plane of the suspensor and frame in their expanded configuration. Like garment hangers with downward-folding spars and unlike those with upward-folding spars, those with sidewards-folding spars can be inserted and removed through the garment's neck opening while holding the suspensor outside the garment—provided that the suspensor can be disengaged from the clothes rod or other purchase—by tilting the hanger so that the spars hang downward from the suspensor shaft, which is held horizontally. However, this method does not apply to inventions such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,184,743 and 5,007,562, in which the ends of spars fold away from each other rather than toward each other. In any case, with sideways-folding spars one still needs to reach inside the garment after inserting the hanger in order to initiate prying the spars apart, which are held together by gravity, friction, and attractive forces. Some inventions, including U.S. Pat. No. 2,123,973, awarded to Norman B. Smith in July 1938, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,425,527, 2,906,442, 4,186,858, 4,997,115, 5,480,076, and 5,632,422, lessen this problem by using springs to initially force the spars apart; in practice, however, this only works if the spring is strong enough to overcome the weight and friction of the garment in addition to the weight and attraction of the spars and the friction of the hinge. Once the ends of the spars are slightly spread, they can in principle be fully unfolded by tilting the suspensor back in the opposite direction, provided that the friction against the garment is not too great. However, this action places great torque stress on the suspensor shaft and the spars, against which they would need considerable lateral stiffening for heavy garments. Alternatively, given a third hand, the spars can then be pushed apart through the fabric of the garment. In either case, however, the friction of the ends of the spars pressing out against the garment would cause undesirable wear on the fabric of the garment. A further problem is that in their expanded configuration, the laterally folding spars are only in a critically stable condition, such that a slight tilting of the hanger in the collapsing direction causes the hanger to collapse on its own under gravity, an effect reinforced by the changing weight distribution of the garment. Some inventions, including U.S. Pat. No. 0,554,643, awarded in February 1896 to Charles Behrend Jr., as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,851,527, 0,881,818, 1,058,394, 1,184,743, 1,374,024, 1,453,000, 1,836,935, 1,836,942, 2,123,973 (e.g., FIG. 4), and U.S. Pat. No. 6,076,716, hold the spars in their expanded position with one or more latches, but these require inconvenient additional manipulation to close and open; and some, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,184,743, 1,374,024, 1,600,949, and 1,696,480, require reaching one's hands inside the garment to operate. A few inventions, such as U.S. Pat. No. 1,181,691, awarded to William Morris Stiebritz in 1916, use catches that simply snap into place instead. A different solution is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,562, awarded to Joyce Brink & James E. Brink in April 1991, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,244,479, 6,311,880, 6,328,187, 6,345,742, and 6,431,419, in which the spars fold not strictly horizontally but diagonally upward, so that the unfolded configuration is inherently stable.
Sliding-Frame Hangers
Another very common method of collapsing and expanding a garment hanger is by telescoping the frame with sliding joints, thus dividing the top rail of the hanger into two or more overlapping or nesting spars, none longer than the width of the neck opening plus the length of one shoulder of the garment, at least one of which segments is attached to the suspensor. All such inventions share some important drawbacks. When extended, the free segments are asymmetrically cantilevered, greatly stressing the ends of the telescoping joints, which stretch, crack, and break. When collapsing and extending the frames, the telescoping joints tend to bind, especially when deformed by the weight of the garment. Friction rapidly wears out the sliding joints and the catches that prevent them from coming apart. Moreover, the use of telescoping segments (6 in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,049,867, 1,114,002, and 2,663,470, 8 in U.S. Pat. No. 1,114,294, 10 in U.S. Pat. No. 4,004,721) increases the complexity of the construction and hence the cost of manufacturing and the frequency of malfunction in operation.
In a large number of sliding-frame garment hanger inventions, including U.S. Pat. No. 0,364,803, awarded in June 1887 to Hans Christian, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,765,331, 0,839,843, 0,892,149, 1,005,967, 1,344,665, 1,453,000, 1,638,844, 1,673,059, 1,817,369, 2,290,722, 2,362,756, 2,477,873, 2,524,978, 2,527,312, 2,591,387, 2,599,260, 2,613,858, 2,629,525, 2,633,276, 2,640,632, 2,656,955, 2,682,978, 2,682,980, 2,757,836, 2,819,828, 2,884,171, 2,906,442, 2,944,711, 3,005,579, 3,254,814, 3,874,572, 5,052,599, 5,476,199, 5,680,972, 6,068,166, 6,076,716, 6,164,504, 6,220,489, and 6,811,064, each side of the top rail telescopes separately in two segments. If the hanger is to fit through the neck opening of the garment, then this design strictly limits the length of overlap in the retracted state of a one-sided spar to half the width of the frame. In the extended state, the degree of overlap in such a unilateral spar is substantially less than the length of the cantilevered section of the distal segment, which thus exerts great imbalanced torque on the overlapping joint under the leveraged weight of the garment. A few inventions, including U.S. Pat. No. 1,049,867, awarded to Loeser Kalina in January 1913, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,245,425, 1,114,002, 1,114,294, 2,120,436, 2,488,219, 2,663,470, 3,214,071, 4,004,721, and 5,950,882 (e.g., FIG. 9), potentially increase the degree of overlap between segments of a spar by increasing the number of telescoping segments per spar, thus reducing the stress on the joints. However, this greatly increases the complexity of the construction and hence the cost of manufacture and the risk of malfunction during use. Another method of increasing the degree of overlap is to have the telescoping spars cross over to the other side, as in U.S. Pat. No. 0,071,136, awarded in November 1867 to Henry M. Clemence, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,401,943, 0,640,616, 0,665,314, 0,668,673, 0,976,094, 0,996,504, 1,018,584, 1,207,338, 1,324,679, 1,356,448, 1,377,837, 1,385,449, 1,598,747, 1,886,298, 2,096,827, 2,452,346, 2,477,873, 2,487,445, 2,519,276, 2,548,810, 2,621,834, 2,774,526, 2,781,157, 2,800,261, 3,443,729, 3,494,517, 3,799,412, 3,802,611, 5,456,391, 5,975,385, 6,158,634, and 7,246,729. However, this limits the shape of the overlapping portion of the top rail to an arc of constant curvature, just as telescoping spars in general are limited to an arc of constant curvature. A few inventions, including U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,701, awarded to Peter Ar-Fu Lam in April 1996, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,664,710, 6,409,058, and 6,644,520, overcome this limitation by using flexible materials for the overlapping portions of the spars. A further method of slightly remedying the unbalanced torque is to include a telescoping crossbar between the distal ends of the telescoping segments of the spars, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,377,836, 2,354,099, 2,360,119, 2,421,433, 2,452,346, 2,472,262, 2,491,836, 2,494,272, 2,504,562, 2,524,612, 2,531,293, 2,547,436, 2,549,500, 2,637,471, 2,716,512, 2,718,340, 2,738,908, 2,817,470, 4,334,641, 4,801,057, 5,085,357, 5,579,964, 6,179,174, and 7,077,300; but unless the bar is somehow held rigid, this has little bracing effect. In a few inventions, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,531,108 and 5,598,957, the crossbar is indeed held quite rigid by fastening it to the telescoping spars as a turnbuckle, but operating the turnbuckle to retract or extend the spars is a tedious process and requires reaching in through the neck opening of the garment with one's hands. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,562,368, the crossbar is held quite rigid by fastening the overlapping telescoping segments of the crossbar with a setscrew, and in U.S. Pat. No. 2,500,817, the telescoping bar is held fairly rigid with pins inserted through holes aligned with a rack engaging overlapping segments of the crossbar. These solutions, while perhaps not as tedious as twisting a turnbuckle, would nevertheless present quite a challenge to operate while blindly reaching one's hands inside the garment. In yet a few further inventions, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,510,375, 2,567,348, 2,673,668, and 6,722,538, the crossbar is held somewhat rigid by engaging the crossbar with the mobile spar segments with a pawl or lug on a rack. A further shortcoming of sliding-frame hangers is that each side needs to be extended independently, making it inconveniently difficult to extend them equally to fit a garment, except when fully extended. In fact, in the asymmetrical sliding-frame hangers disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,729, awarded to Kevin A. Harvey in July 2007, the fully extended configuration is the only position at which the spars are equal in length. On the other hand, non-sliding garment hangers are not adjustable in width anyway. U.S. Pat. No. 2,496,561, awarded in February 1950 to Jack A. Saunders, solves this problem by coordinating the spars' positions with a split pull-chain. A major inconvenience of sliding-frame hangers is that in order to extend the spars, one needs to either reach blindly inside the garment to find their ends and pull them out, or grope blindly through the fabric of the garment from the outside to find their ends and pull them out without damaging the garment. In a few inventions in which the spars cross over, including U.S. Pat. No. 2,452,346, awarded to Joseph F. Appleman in October 1958, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,477,873, 2,487,445, 2,738,908, 5,456,391, 5,511,701, 5,664,710, 5,975,385, 6,409,058, 6,644,520, the telescoping spars are extended mechanically, by rotating the suspensor or a separate crank or knob, on whose shaft is mounted a pinion which simultaneously engages a rack embedded in each spar, thus extending or retracting the spars in synchrony; whereas U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,494,272 and 5,102,019 achieve the same effect with two one-sided telescoping spars, each of whose distal segments either contains an embedded rack driven by a worm gear or a pulley driven by a belt. All these methods both the problem of extending the spars equally and the problem of having to reach inside the garment to contract or extend the spars. When used for open top-wear garments, a further problem with telescoping frames could conceivably arise in that the weight of the garment might overcome the friction in the telescoping joints and pull the sliding members out further than desired, distorting the shape of the garment. Some sliding-frame hangers, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,320,230, 0,395,884, 0,904,249, 2,364,931, 2,504,562, 2,524,612, 2,525,142, 2,619,269, 2,620,102 (e.g., FIG. 1), 5,344,054, solve this problem by securing the telescoping segments with set-screws, while other inventions, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,890,271, 2,699,276, 6,637,630, secure them with pins or rivets fitting through holes aligned with a rack. Other inventions, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,847,212, 0,912,047, 1,377,836, 1,422,782, 2,283,530, 2,335,285, 2,409,708, 2,421,433, 2,446,312, 2,491,836, 2,494,711, 2,538,971, 2,582,669, 2,589,374, 2,620,102 (e.g., FIG. 6), 2,637,471, 2,652,958, 2,666,561, 2,679,958, 2,701,083, 2,709,026, 2,716,512, 2,722,351, 2,754,039, 2,814,426, 2,817,471, 2,900,117, 3,039,662, 4,717,053, 4,895,283, 4,905,877, 5,082,152, 5,085,358, 5,145,098, 5,613,627, 6,722,538, 5,718,358, 5,718,362, 5,727,718, 5,941,429, 6,021,932, 6,062,445, 6,206,255, and 6,688,503, secure the mobile segments to the fixed segments with pinions, pawls, lugs, or detents engaging racks.
In one particularly innovative sliding-frame garment hanger invention, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,352,264, awarded in June 1944 to Osborne L. Horton, the spars do not slide alongside one another, but rather across each other, one through the other. Thus, this design puts no restrictions on the shape of the spars. To address the problem of torque imbalance, this invention braces the upper ends against each other, each forming one side of the suspensor hook, thus effectively forming a crossbar above rather than below the spars. Since the upper end of each spar extends all the way to the suspensor, this invention permits the hanger to be inserted or extracted through the neck of a garment without reaching one's hands inside the garment. However, since the suspensor hook is formed and closed precisely by extending the hanger, hanging a garment on a clothes-rod with this hanger would require at least three hands. Moreover, because the second spar is inserted through the first from above, this hanger requires an often inconvenient amount of space above the clothes-rod for clearance.
Flexible-Frame Hangers
A few garment hanger inventions feature a frame whose size can be adjusted by flexure. One trouble with all such designs is that heavy garments may flex the frame in undesirable ways. Two such inventions, U.S. Pat. No. 1,352,382, awarded in September 1920 to David R. Riddick, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,507,906, construct tensile spars out of elastically coiled spring prone to pinch and unravel the garment fabric, and for lateral stiffness rely on an extensible crossbar likely to crumple under a heavy garment—a two-segment telescoping rod fastened with a setscrew in U.S. Pat. No. 1,352,382, and a folding lattice with 22 levers and 34 pivots held in position by friction in U.S. Pat. No. 2,507,906. Both of these would require reaching into the garments with both hands to extend the frame, and the first also to contract the frame.
Two other flexible-frame hanger inventions, U.S. Pat. No. 6,073,819, disclosed in June 2000 by Kathleen A. Wing, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,328,186, employ spars with a soft flexible covering and a core which is stiff in the central region of the frame and workably pliable in the peripheral region, bent to shape by hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,464, awarded in January 1998 to Raymond Huang, uses a tensile crossbar with a ring at each end to adjust the size and shape of a flexible spar by hooking the rings into different notches on the spar. However, passing the hanger frame through a narrow garment neck would entail attaching or adjusting the crossbar inside the garment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,759, awarded in October 1998 to Yasuhiro Ohsugi, the resilient spars extend outward frame a crosspiece and loop back through the crosspiece from below, terminating in the suspensor hook, whereby the size of the loops can be adjusted by feeding the material through the crosspiece, so that the frame can be passed through a narrow garment neck simply by pulling the suspensor and crosspiece apart to shrink the frame. Unfortunately, this operation requires two hands, leaving none free to hold the garment.
In a couple of other designs, including U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,242, awarded in January 1991 to Robert D. Grahm, as well as U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,570, the spars are formed of pliant material. Both feature a slender core of stiff but deformable material, surrounded with a thicker stretchy padding. In principle, the frame of such a hanger could be inserted through a narrow garment neck by first bending both arms downward, and then grabbing through the garment fabric to reshape them, but the rough handling of the garment this necessitates would risk soiling, wrinkling, wearing, and tearing the garment fabric.
Removable-Suspensor Hangers
Several garment-hanger inventions feature a removable suspensor hook. In principle, this makes it possible to first insert the hanger frame through a narrow garment neck, and then attach the suspensor; or to first detach the suspensor and then remove the frame through the garment neck, although no removable-suspensor hangers appear to have been designed with this purpose in mind. All such inventions present the risk of inadvertently dropping or losing one part or the other, which is particularly vexatious if the frame lodges somewhere inside a long garment. Most also present the danger of damaging the garment's fabric with the detachable end of the suspensor. And all of them require fine-motor skills incommensurate with the gross task of hanging a garment, and an acuity of vision incompatible with the darkness in typical closets. In most of the removable-suspensor clothes hanger inventions, including U.S. Pat. No. 0,765,331, awarded in July 1904 to John Thomas Batts, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,108,848, 1,268,881, 1,374,024, 2,354,099, 2,519,276, 2,895,657, 3,587,949, 3,703,978, and 4,750,651, the suspensor is hooked onto the frame, held in place by a hook or head. In a few, including U.S. Pat. No. 0,851,527, awarded in April 1907 to Joseph Kronacher, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,904,249, 1,734,549, 1,886,298, 2,548,810, and 4,669,642, it is screwed in.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,446 (e.g., FIG. 1), awarded in December 1991 to James N. Suddath, the suspensor is attached to the frame by simply inserting stubs at the base of the hook into the hollow arms of a one-piece plastic frame, and is held in place only by the resilience of the frame, with the unfortunate consequence that the assembly would fall apart under the weight of a heavy garment or from a sudden movement.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,550,634. awarded in August 1925 to Antti Polkko, the suspensor is secured to the bottom of the frame with a head and to the top of the frame with a threaded nut. Perhaps the most laborious is that of Elisabeth Müller, described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,809,561, June 1931, which requires a flexible suspensor to be threaded through the frame and knotted. In contrast, the simplest to attach is snapped in, as described by Michel S. Schwartz & William Blasnik in U.S. Pat. No. 3,963,154, awarded in June 1975, and later in U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,838; although detaching the hook by pinching the expanding snap flanges is probably much more difficult.
Folding-Suspensor Hangers
Many garment-hanger inventions collapse the garment suspensor by folding the suspensor down toward the frame. All such inventions share some important shortcomings. Although folding the suspensor out of the way permits the entire hanger to be inserted in its collapsed state through the neck of a garment, subsequently maneuvering the hanger around inside the garment to bring the suspensor to the neck opening so that the suspensor can be folded back out is awkward and entails either reaching one's hand into the garment or groping for the hanger through the garment fabric. Likewise, in order to remove the hanger from the garment, after folding the suspensor out of the way, one must awkwardly manipulate the hanger into position for removal through the neck by either reaching into the garment with one's hand or grasping the hanger through the fabric of the garment. A further drawback of folding-suspensor hangers is that the garment cannot be hung or unhung in place, while the hanger is suspended by its suspensor. Still another drawback of many folding-suspensor garment hangers is that the suspensor element does not remain erect on its own, making it difficult to hang up or take down the hanger, as one must somehow support the weight of the garment while firmly grasping the suspensor, an action which is not merely awkward but presents the risk of pinching one's skin or fingers between the suspensor hook and the clothes rod or other hanging purchase. Furthermore, many folding-suspensor garment hangers present the danger of pinching one's skin or the garment fabric in the folding mechanism, albeit under less leverage than in folding-frame garment hangers. And in its inverted position, the large suspensor hook is apt to snag on the threads and seams inside the garment as the hanger is maneuvered back and forth.
In a large number of folding-suspensor garment hangers, as in U.S. Pat. No. 0,640,616, issued in January 1900 to John F. Brock, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,665,314, 0,838,839, 0,847,212, 0,890,023, 1,005,967, 1,040,942, 1,207,338, 1,286,022, 1,356,448, 1,696,480, 1,836,935, 1,970,943, 1,979,687, 2,425,475, 2,507,906, 2,531,108, 2,544,170, 2,582,669, 2,595,026, 2,633,276, 2,724,533, 2,777,619, 2,781,157, 3,254,814, 3,315,854, 3,443,729, 3,802,610, 3,802,611, 4,915,271, 5,044,534, 5,649,652, 6,000,587, and 7,021,507, the suspensor is designed to pivot out of the way within the plane of the hanger frame toward one spar or the other. This asymmetry proves inconvenient after inserting the hanger through the garment neck opening, when the center of the hanger must be aligned to the correct edge of the neck opening in order to reerect the suspensor. In a few in-plane folding-suspensor hangers, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,668,673, 0,881,818, 1,058,394, 1,184,743, 1,248,577, 1,385,449, 1,453,000, and 2,745,579, the suspensor can only be folded down in one direction, making collapsing the hanger inconvenient as well. Many in-plane folding-suspensor hangers, including U.S. Pat. No. 0,624,415, issued in May 1899 to Franz Weber, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,713,376, 0,886,041, 0,892,149, 0,920,240, 0,912,047, 0,932,756, 0,976,531, 1,101,088, 1,114,294, 1,268,881, 1,336,375, 1,351,516, 1,370,713, 1,399,115, 1,415,747, 1,444,525, 1,458,113, 1,458,114, 1,521,972, 1,577,290, 1,673,059, 1,682,626, 2,096,827, 2,108,622, 2,448,234, 2,605,942, 2,701,082, 3,334,793, 3,451,601, 3,645,426, 3,726,452, 3,790,046, 3,834,598, 3,874,572, 4,186,857, 6,244,479, 6,311,880, 6,328,187, 6,345,742, and 6,431,419, solve this problem by permitting the suspensor to rotate full circle in either direction, but at the expense of having to reach one's hand further in through the neck opening of the garment in order to retrieve the suspensor after inserting the hanger. Two folding-suspensor hangers approach this problem instead by having the suspensor fold more-or-less straight downward in the plane of the hanger frame, being hinged on both sides. In the first, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,513,980 in July 1950 by Harold Kuss Widmann, the change in height of the suspensor is ancillary to the purpose of adjusting the width of the frame via the laborious manipulation of turnbuckle on the crossbar; In the other, disclosed by Peter Ar-Fu Lam in U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,718 (e.g., FIG. 8) in March 1998 (and again in U.S. Pat. No. 6,021,932 (e.g., FIG. 8)), the suspensor is doubly hinged on each side, relying on the flexibility of the plastic frame to accommodate the intermediate widening of the upper rail, but this four-hinge design entails a considerable structural weakening, instability, and susceptibility to mechanical failure. In a few in-plane folding-suspensor hangers, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,558,583 and 2,613,858, the suspensor hook itself is jointed, permitting it to folded together to collapse it into a still-smaller volume, but at the expense of a substantial weakening of the suspensor, as well as increased cost of manufacture. A further drawback of in-plane folding-suspensor hangers is that the pivot between the suspensor and the frame is down near the center of gravity, making increasing the susceptibility of the hanger to rocking in the plane of the hanger and thus of the garment to shift toward the lower end, whereupon the imbalance causes the hanger to tilt ever further until it dumps a wider-necked or open garment on the floor. The problem is perhaps less severe in those designs which only permit the suspensor to rotate to one side. U.S. Pat. No. 2,096,827, awarded in February 1937 to Frank Simon, as well as U.S. Pat. No. 3,334,793, solve the problem by permitting the suspensor to be cumbersomely aligned in the erect position and clamped in place with a wingnut, which is easily lost along with its accompanying washer. U.S. Pat. No. 2,582,669, still more cumbersomely, uses a bolt and nut. A couple of patented designs, including U.S. Pat. No. 3,451,601, awarded in June 1969 to Joseph Pelavin and Frank Ioviero, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,726,452, feature a double-ended suspensor, with a large hook at one end for conventional clothes rods, and a small hook at the other for use in luggage, provide a catch to lock the small hook in position, but not, curiously, the large hook. U.S. Pat. No. 3,790,046, awarded in February 1974, uses a catch to hold the hook in the erect position.
In many folding-suspensor hangers, the suspensor is designed to pivot out of the way perpendicularly to the plane of the garment hanger frame, as in U.S. Pat. No. 0,554,643, awarded in February 1896 to Charles Behrend, Jr., as well as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,765,331, 0,787,622, 0855295, 0,996,504, 1,017,854, 1,049,867, 1,114,002, 1,181,691, 1,184,700, 1,570,196, 1,598,747, 1,638,844, 1,970,943, 2,164,208, 2,170,319, 2,301,814, 2,413,221, 2,428,820, 2,491,836, 2,562,368, 2,663,470, 2,719,658, 3,131,817, 3,214,071, 3,860,154, 3,870,206, 4,168,791, 4,750,651, 4,932,571, 5,085,357, 5,145,098, 5,727,718, 6,021,932, and 6,076,716. Garment hangers with perpendicularly folding suspensors suffer a greater risk of overstretching the garment neck, since the unfolding suspensor takes up more room in it perpendicular state as it rotates out of the plane of the hanger frame.
In a few folding-suspensor hangers, the suspensor is free to pivot in any direction, as in U.S. Pat. No. 0,364,803. awarded in June 1887 to Hans Christian, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,137,700, 2,547,436, 2,682,978, 2,808,187, 3,703,978, 4,624,396, and 7,021,507 (e.g., FIG. 5). In such hangers, it is difficult to prevent the suspensor hook from flopping around and snagging on the garment threads or seams in the process of maneuvering the hanger around inside the garment.
Sliding-Suspensor Hangers
Several prior garment-hanger designs feature a slidingly extensible suspensor. In theory, retracting the suspensor hook could make it possible to insert or remove the entire frame of the hanger through a narrow neck opening without stretching, tearing, or unfastening the garment or snagging the suspensor hook on the garment collar; However, no retractable-suspensor clothes hangers appear to have been invented with this purpose in mind, although in U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,670, awarded in December 1977 to Jens Faarbech, the hook is designed to be completely retractable for the related purpose of avoiding snagging it on adjacent clothing or hangers when removing the hanger from a clothes rod. Indeed, only in a few such inventions, including U.S. Pat. No. 0,975,509, patented by Joseph E. Carroll in November 1910, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,425,527, 3,802,611, and 4,063,670, is the suspensor sufficiently retractable to prevent snagging the clothing. All of these inconveniently require delicately fishing out the suspensor with the fingertips prior to use, and in order to lift the suspensor over a clothes rod or other support to hang up or take down the hanger, one has to grasp the hanger by its suspensor, and either bear the entire weight of the hanger and garment with that frail grip, or reach into the wardrobe to support the garment with the other hand. Moreover, in most of these designs, the hook retracts into a collar support which obstructs easy passage of the hanger through a garment neck. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,425,527, awarded in August 1947 to Orlando Alboeno Gaudino, the suspensor also retracts into a taller central frame section, but one whose top curves smoothly into the tops of the adjacent folding spars. Nevertheless, all of these designs would require reaching through the garment neck after inserting the hanger therethrough, in order to manipulate the center of the hanger back to the neck opening.
Several inventions featuring a retractable suspensor overcome this problem by attaching the suspensor to the frame in such a way that retracting the suspensor folds the spars downwards to horizontally collapse the frame so that it can fit straight through the neck; whereas extending the suspensor lifts the spars to extend the frame horizontally to support the garment shoulders. These include U.S. Pat. No. 0,958,366, awarded to Edgar C. Clausen in May 1910, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 0,959,687, 1,111,147, 1,676,936, 1,886,869, 2,290,722, 2,629,525, 2,881,965, 3,858,770, and 4,227,632 (e.g., FIGS. 7,8). However, all such designs suffer from the problems of structural weakness and mechanical failure explicated earlier in the discussion of downward-folding spars.
In two nearly identical century-old prior garment-hanger inventions, the suspensor is free to slide along the frame in the collapsed frame configuration. In principle, this could make it possible to insert the hanger frame through a narrow neck and then extend the frame inside the garment, and to collapse the frame inside the garment and then extract it through a narrow neck, all the while holding the suspensor outside. Both feature recurved wire spars telescoping into each other. In the first, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 0,640,616 by John F. Brock in January 1900, an eye at the root of the wire suspensor is attached to a link which straddles three of the wire spar ends. In the second, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 0,668,673 by Simeon S. Brooks in February 1901, the bottom of the suspensor is forked, with an eye at the end of each tine, and attached thereby to both ends of one of the wire spars. These hangers can easily be removed through a narrow-necked garment by propping one shoulder of the garment against one's chest and pressing the other garment shoulder towards one's chest with one hand to collapse the frame inside the garment while holding the suspensor in the other hand. However, extending the hanger inside the hanger requires reaching inside with both hands to pull the ends apart, thus obviating any advantage that retaining the suspensor outside might afford. Moreover, both these designs are exceptionally flimsy, with the spars overlapping hardly at all in their extended configuration.
Limp-Suspensor Hangers
In several garment hanger inventions, including U.S. Pat. No. 839,843, awarded in January 1907 to John H. Herbener, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 964,072, 976,094, 1,018,584, 1,114,294, 1,377,836, 1,377,837, 1,809,561, and 1,836,942, the suspensor is limp, and droops when let go, easily permitting the hanger frame to fit through a narrow garment neck. The chief problem presented by this feature is that, after inserting the hanger through the garment neck, the hanger first has to be manipulated into position to bring the center back under the neck opening, and then the limp suspensor has to be fished out.
As all of these inventions precede the widespread availability of clothes rods, the suspensor in a majority is merely a chain of metal links, both of whose ends are attached to the hanger frame, as in U.S. Pat. No. 1,114,294, awarded in October 1914 to J. Routstone. Most of these include a sturdy ring at the apex for hanging on a hook or nail, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 839,843, 1,018,584, 1,377,836, 1,377,837. A few do substitute a small metal hook for the central ring, including U.S. Pat. No. 964,072, awarded in July 1910 to Samuel T. Watanabe, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 967,094 and 1,836,942, but in these the hook is liable to become entangled in the frame, making it all the more difficult to fish out of the garment. Worse, the hook is apt to snag or tear the garment.
Two prior inventions, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,809,561 and 1,836,942, use a string instead of a chain, and are thus more prone to wear and tear. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,809,561, awarded in June 1931 to Elisabeth Müller, only one end of the string is attached to the frame, requiring the free end to be tied around a support.
In a couple of designs, U.S. Pat. Nos. 965,072 and 1,809,561, only one end of the limp suspensor is connected to the frame, permitting the hanger frame to pivot about this connection, which, being down close to the center of gravity, makes the hanger especially susceptible to a rocking motion that can cause the garment to shift toward the lower end of the frame, causing it to list ever further over until a wider-necked garment slips off the hanger and falls to the floor. Even some of the limp-suspensor designs in which both ends of the chain are attached to the frame suffer from this problem, because they have slidingly extensible frames which permit the ends of the chain to slide together, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 976,094, 1,018,584, 1,377,836, and 1,377,837.
Inflatable Hangers
A few patents, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,734,549, 2,622,774, 2,813,667, and 3,923,212, teach the construction of pneumatic garment hangers in which one or more balloons are inflated with air to achieve sufficient turgor to support a garment, and deflated to take up less space when not in use. Though not specifically intended for the purpose of facilitating insertion through a garment neck opening, in their deflated state such hangers could certainly fit through a narrow garment neck. In principle, however, pneumatic garment hangers suffer from several problems. In its deflated state, a balloon is too flaccid to push through a garment neck opening, and would need to be pulled through instead. Holding a flaccid balloon in place while also holding the garment and inflating the balloon by mouth would be awkward. Under turgid pressure sufficient to support a heavy garment for months or years at a time, balloons' films, seams, and valves tend to leak. In a retail setting where clothing is often pinned with straight pins for display, the balloons would be at constant risk of puncturing and popping. Users lacking the thoracic capacity to inflate the hangers themselves would require a servant or air compressor to inflate them. Hangers orally inflated by multiple users would present an unacceptable hygienic risk of transmitting tuberculosis, influenza, and other orally transmitted diseases.
Asymmetrically Cantilevered Hangers
In several patented garment hanger inventions, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,164,420, 2,232,028, 2,412,735, 2,499,538, 3,485,423, 5,649,653, 5,806,727, 6,036,062, 6,230,945, 6,260,746, and 6,315,176, the suspensor hook is attached off-center, via a strut connected to only one end of the hanger frame, to leave an open slot between that strut and the frame. This slot serves to admit the collar and shoulder of one side of the garment as the free end of the hanger frame is tucked into the sleeve on that side until the attached end of the frame clears the inside of the collar on the opposite side, thus permitting the attached end of the hanger to be inserted or removed through the garment neck opening. While elegant in their simplicity, such inventions have serious drawbacks. The one-sided attachment of the suspensor substantially increases the cantilevered length of the frame—up to approximately 6 times the length in the model depicted in FIG. 4 in U.S. Pat. No. 2,232,028—thus greatly weakening the frame, and requiring substantial vertical structural reinforcement to support a heavy garment. This effect is magnified by the nonbarycentric attachment of the suspensor, such that the weight of a garment on the free end of the hanger applies an unbalanced torque with a large moment at the attached end of the frame. The excessive cantilevered length also weakens the hanger horizontally, so that it would tend to wobble laterally without substantial lateral reinforcement. Moreover, the asymmetrical support would cause the free end of the hanger to sag, so that garments would tend to slide and droop toward or even off that end, resulting in asymmetrical puckers and wrinkles. A few inventions, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,595,442 and 4,004,721, as well as some of the inventions in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,232,028, 6,036,062, and 6,230,945, seek to moderate these structural weaknesses by providing a means to attach the free end of the hanger frame for hanging and detach it for insertion and extraction, but the joint between the free and rigidly attached ends of the frame in such inventions is still a weak point, and in practice, fumbling for the free end and reattaching it, particularly when the hanger is bent out of shape under the load of a heavy garment, would be inconvenient. Also inconvenient is the intrinsic asymmetry of the hanger during manipulation, due to the eccentric hook attachment, so that it can only be inserted into or extracted from the garment in one direction. Furthermore, the one-sided joint between the suspensor hook and the hanger frame would be too weak, without major reinforcement, to support a swivel hook—although one invention, described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,746, proposes just that—a further inconvenience, as the garmented hanger must be oriented properly to engage the suspensor hook on the clothes-hanging rod.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,729, assigned to Kevin A. & Robin J. Harvey, proposes to collapse a hanger gravitationally or manually such that one spar nests inside the other, both presumably of the same fixed curvature, the outer hollow spar attached to the suspensor hook. By tilting the hanger in the appropriate direction, the inner spar is supposed to fall into or out of the outer spar, overcoming the dashpot effect, the internal friction between the nested spars, or manually, by pulling out on the exposed end of the sliding spar after insertion and pushing it back in prior to removal.
What is needed is a general-purpose garment-hanging apparatus and method which is especially useful for narrow-necked garments.